Over the last few years I've tried buying a number of pipes from China, the first horribly stank of something equivalent to burning plastic, no go.
Then a fantastic bamboo stem pipe, amazing quality for the price (~$50) but it took six months to arrive so who knows if anyone else would ever get what they ordered.
One of the basic $15 pipes has fantastic stem design, but the tenon overlaps some of the draft hole and it required significant shaping in the shank before it smokes to my standards.
Many come close, but no Escudo, until now.
www.aliexpress.com
Do note the price fluctuates, not unlike Amazon, I paid about $45.
The sandblast looks great, nicely detailed, just the way I like it.
A few years ago you never saw any sandblasted pipes sold from China, someone has been upgrading their equipment.
Maybe the only disappointing thing about the pipe itself, the pipe does not normally sit, it just teeters on the edge if you set the pipe on a flat surface, anything not perfectly flat and it falls over.
Loaded with Tobacco it can sit better, but clearly the maker decided carving a perfect cylinder was more important than making a pipe that sits, a creative choice I'm sure many popular Pipemakers have made before, but is nonetheless annoying anywhere you see it.
Pipe Width is 35mm (1-3/8") and Length is 94mm (3-11/16"), the chamber walls are 8mm (5/16") thick.
Weight is 59g (2oz).
The Chamber is Cylindrical, 20mm (25/32") Wide and 37mm (1-15/32") Deep.
This is actually one of the larger Chinese made pipes that I've seen, a good majority of them are "Miniature" sized and seem to be photographed by someone with very small hands.
The bowl coating looks like an average basic coating, after smoking a bowl it didn't fade or rub out with cleaning so it's at least on-par with industry standard.
The Shank is drilled to 3.175mm (1/8") and the Stem is 3mm (59/500"
), the drilling is clean and spot on, not quick or lazy at all, the draft hole is angled upward from the shank into the bowl so condensation should naturally drain into the Reverse Calabash chamber.
In any other pipe I would be critical of a 1/8" bore in the shank but in this design it should be fine.
The Tenon is a tapered fit, just a little push and it's very secure.
I'm not sure if this counts as a "Military Mount" but as well as being tapered the stem secures into a decorative Acrylic ring so temperature and humidity shouldn't affect fit.
The Slot appears to be crafted very carefully, though the maker may have been trying to be too careful because there is almost no overlap between the depth of the air channel and the slot. I get the impression they were trying to make the slot and air channel meet exactly, and that aim was executed fairly well, unfortunately the ideal design actually has some overlap between the two.
Draw is not bad at all out of the box but if you just take a small file and knock the corners off at the interface between the slot and channel it should make a difference.
While I didn't actually smoke the pipe in stock configuration (the itch to get drilling was too strong) out of the box it should be as good as 99.999% of the pipes on the market today.
Speaking of the box, it got a bit beat up in shipping but at least it does the job.
Shipping to Canada took a little over two months, average by AliExpress standards though do be aware of Holiday congestion.
As mentioned earlier, one of my other AliExpress pipes smelled horrible and that includes the box it came in.
Not so here, even the sock the pipe ships in smells quite clean, a very pleasant surprise (There are also some rubber bits in there, they are the only thing that does smell bad and I wouldn't use them just because of the rubber taste).
A few years ago I wrote half a novel to one of the sellers on AliExpress trying to explain that you can't sell a Tobacco Pipe that smells like toxic waste, it seems the message came through.
It's a beautiful pipe with features you very rarely see anywhere else, if you don't have a Chinese made Pipe in your collection yet this one would be a perfect candidate to represent the country.
Then a fantastic bamboo stem pipe, amazing quality for the price (~$50) but it took six months to arrive so who knows if anyone else would ever get what they ordered.
One of the basic $15 pipes has fantastic stem design, but the tenon overlaps some of the draft hole and it required significant shaping in the shank before it smokes to my standards.
Many come close, but no Escudo, until now.
54.32US $ |▂ξ Smoker Briar Pipes New Design Smoking Pipes Large Cavity Design Straight Type Real Handmade With Free Pipe Accessories - Cigar Accessories - AliExpress
Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com
The sandblast looks great, nicely detailed, just the way I like it.
A few years ago you never saw any sandblasted pipes sold from China, someone has been upgrading their equipment.
Maybe the only disappointing thing about the pipe itself, the pipe does not normally sit, it just teeters on the edge if you set the pipe on a flat surface, anything not perfectly flat and it falls over.
Loaded with Tobacco it can sit better, but clearly the maker decided carving a perfect cylinder was more important than making a pipe that sits, a creative choice I'm sure many popular Pipemakers have made before, but is nonetheless annoying anywhere you see it.
Pipe Width is 35mm (1-3/8") and Length is 94mm (3-11/16"), the chamber walls are 8mm (5/16") thick.
Weight is 59g (2oz).
The Chamber is Cylindrical, 20mm (25/32") Wide and 37mm (1-15/32") Deep.
This is actually one of the larger Chinese made pipes that I've seen, a good majority of them are "Miniature" sized and seem to be photographed by someone with very small hands.
The bowl coating looks like an average basic coating, after smoking a bowl it didn't fade or rub out with cleaning so it's at least on-par with industry standard.
The Shank is drilled to 3.175mm (1/8") and the Stem is 3mm (59/500"
), the drilling is clean and spot on, not quick or lazy at all, the draft hole is angled upward from the shank into the bowl so condensation should naturally drain into the Reverse Calabash chamber.In any other pipe I would be critical of a 1/8" bore in the shank but in this design it should be fine.
The Tenon is a tapered fit, just a little push and it's very secure.
I'm not sure if this counts as a "Military Mount" but as well as being tapered the stem secures into a decorative Acrylic ring so temperature and humidity shouldn't affect fit.
The Slot appears to be crafted very carefully, though the maker may have been trying to be too careful because there is almost no overlap between the depth of the air channel and the slot. I get the impression they were trying to make the slot and air channel meet exactly, and that aim was executed fairly well, unfortunately the ideal design actually has some overlap between the two.
Draw is not bad at all out of the box but if you just take a small file and knock the corners off at the interface between the slot and channel it should make a difference.
While I didn't actually smoke the pipe in stock configuration (the itch to get drilling was too strong) out of the box it should be as good as 99.999% of the pipes on the market today.
Speaking of the box, it got a bit beat up in shipping but at least it does the job.
Shipping to Canada took a little over two months, average by AliExpress standards though do be aware of Holiday congestion.
As mentioned earlier, one of my other AliExpress pipes smelled horrible and that includes the box it came in.
Not so here, even the sock the pipe ships in smells quite clean, a very pleasant surprise (There are also some rubber bits in there, they are the only thing that does smell bad and I wouldn't use them just because of the rubber taste).
A few years ago I wrote half a novel to one of the sellers on AliExpress trying to explain that you can't sell a Tobacco Pipe that smells like toxic waste, it seems the message came through.
It's a beautiful pipe with features you very rarely see anywhere else, if you don't have a Chinese made Pipe in your collection yet this one would be a perfect candidate to represent the country.
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